`EPiServer.IContentRepository` is the primary API that defines repository methods for `IContent` objects. Through the repository, you can perform CRUD (Create, Read, Update, Delete) operations on content instances implementing `EPiServer.Core.IContent`, for example, listing and move.

You would normally get an instance of any interface by using dependency injection (for example, by constructor injection). But you can also get a content instance by calling the inversion of control (IoC) container directly:

If you only need read-only access to content, use the IContentLoader interface instead:

The following examples show common operations for instances of content.

## Load a content instance

To load a single content instance, call the method: `Get<T>` where `T : IContentData`. The T type parameter specifies which type you want. So, if there is a type representing a page as...

...and you know to which type a given reference refers, you can load the page as:

If the content item cannot be assigned to the type given as type argument, a `TypeMismatchException` occurs. If you do not know an item's type, you can safely load the item with `IContent` as type argument. (The constraint is `IContentData`, but in runtime, each instance loadable from repository implements `IContent`.)

If you want to load an item as a given type but do not want an generate an exception if type is not correct, you can load it as:

You can load several content instances at the same time with the following calls.

When you load several items and a type is not matching, the result is filtered for types that are assignable to type argument (and does not generate a `TypeMismatchException`).

You can specify a language version of content by using an overload that takes a `CultureInfo` or a `LanguageLoaderOption`. If you do not specify CultureInfo, content is retrieved in the same language that the current request specifies; see `ContentLanguage.PreferredCulture`. You can specify `CultureInfo` to consider the language fallback and replacement settings, by using a `LanguageLoaderOption` with fallback enabled. The following example shows how to get the Swedish version of the page.

## List children of a content instance

Optimizely Content Management System (CMS) stores content in a tree hierarchy. The following example shows how to get the children of a content instance:

To get all children that are pages to a content instance, use the following call:

If you want the children in a specific language, use overloads to `GetChildren` that take a `LoaderOption`.

## Persisting a content instance

To persist an `IContent` instance, call the `Save` method. If the `IContent` instance implements `IReadOnly`, call `CreateWritableClone` before you modify the instance. The save method has a `SaveAction` flag parameter that controls which action occurs when saved, such as publishing the page. The following example shows how to programmatically update a page property.

## DataFactory

The `EPiServer.DataFactory` class, which has an Instance property that gives access to the singleton instance of the repository, is a façade that implements `IContentRepository` and forwards all calls to the actual implementation (`DataFactory `also acts as a front for other interfaces such as `IContentVersionRepository`). `DataFactory` is the legacy implementation for many APIs and is only kept for backward compatibility.